1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exterior mirror design for motor vehicles, particularly commercial vehicles. More specifically, the invention is directed to an adapter for a precise and accurate attachment of a mirror unit to a support arm, as well as, a procedure for the precise and accurate attachment of the mirror unit.
2) Description of Related Art
Vehicle mirrors typically consist of a mirror head with at least one mirror. The mirror can be either fixed or adjustable in housing and mounted directly into a frame. Furthermore, an adjusting device may be provided in the housing for the manual or motor driven adjustment of the mirror in relation to the housing, mirror heating elements, etc. A different adjustment concept allows for the entire mirror head to be adjusted by way of an interposed adjustment unit.
The mirror head or mirror head adjustment unit is usually attached by way of a clamping connection to an essentially vertical running tubular frame, which is attached either with a holding arm or directly onto the vehicle and is particularly adjustable and/or hinged.
Clamping devices are known from EP 0 090 909 A2 and EP 0 590 510 A1, which have rhombic openings and can, therefore, be attached to tubular frame systems with different diameters by way of a bolted connection. These clamps are usually made of metal and are equipped with a welded thread and rubber pads in the rhombic opening. This type of attachment to tubular frames with different diameters, however, is to the detriment of its stability because a frictional engagement is only achieved at four points and/or lines between the generally circular tubular frame when assimilated into the rhombic opening and onto the clamping parts. Furthermore, the attachment does not allow a defined positioning of the mirror head on the tubular frame, neither in the axial nor circumferential direction.
DE 20 2006 019 379 U1 shows a mirror mount with a mirror head that is tightly clamped to an extruded profile, whereby the extruded profile has longitudinal grooves into which the corresponding projections on the mirror head engage. Thereby, the mirror head can be attached to the extruded profile in different angular positions. This optional positioning of the mirror head in the circumferential direction requires a great amount of production-related effort because the attachment of the mirror head is only possible in each case on a predetermined extruded profile and, therefore, the mirror head and extruded profile must always be coordinated. Incidentally, this attachment does not allow a predefined positioning in the longitudinal direction of the tubular frame.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to create an exterior mirror design for motor vehicles, which enables a precise and accurate attachment to tubular frame systems of different diameters using as many identical parts as possible.